The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1887-05-26
PUT UNDER THE LENS.

About This Valuable Instrument.
Perhaps Parnell will demand that
the microscope be used on the forged
letter The London Times published this
week-the same way we detected tho
famous Morey letter." remarked Prof
John Phin in the hearing of Mail and
Express reporter. Prof. Phen is
leading authority on microscopy, and
was the man who detected with mi
croscope, the FRAUDULENT forgery of Gen
Garfield's signature to the Morey let
ter. The talk led to the subject OF
microscopy and its recent development
here. The professor says that micro
scopic societies are now feature Of
nearly every large city in the union.
The interest in the study has increased
many fold the past few years, and now
all classes of persons take the most ac-
tive interest in it, lawyers. merchants,
and clergymen, study rs zealously and
make as close research rs physicians
and scientific men, to whom it is pro.
fessional matter. Some of the best stu
dents are amateurs. and the president
of the New York society is a clergy
man. This society has upward of one
hundred members and meets twice a
month. Often at these meetings eighty
to one hundred tables are prepared
each with microscope and novel sub.
ject for examination.
1.-The ladies, especially, are taking
great interest in the study" added the
professor, land they are wonderfully
adapted, by both taste and delicacy OF
touch, for the work. Why, we have
in this country what Europe does not
have, a microscopic society composed
wholly of women. This is at the
Wesleyan Female college in Massa-
chusetts 1t is. too, very tlourishing
body. We have also, nowadays. pro-
fessional microscopic analysis. There
are probably twenty-five or thirty in
this city. They are kept busy examin-
ing into authorizations of food, and in
forgeries their work is most impor-
tant. The fact is, as an instrument OF
research, the microscope is second to
none. There is hardly any department
of science in which student can hope
to reach eminence without familiar
ity with this instrument. In chemistry
its services have been very important,
and in geology and mineralogy it has
opened up new fields of research,
which almost promise to revolutionize
these sciences. One of the most i'm
portant of recent changes brought
about in a practical way by the micro
scope is in brewing. By it a low form
of animal life has been discovered.
which rots the beer, and measures
have been taken to exclude this.
There are two mistakes made by be-
ginners in the study which should be
avoided. One is in supposing that it
is only by means of very expensive and
complicated instruments that anything
of value can be accomplished. Now.
while it is certain that in some depart
ments of study none but the very best
microscopes are OF any value, it is
equally certain that very wide range
of study and of practical work can be
thoroughly cultivated by means of APP
paratus of very moderate cost and of
great simplicity of construction. The
great discoveries of Ehrenberg, which
at the most would not command $25.
The other mistake is of precisely the
opposite kind. 1t is not at all unusual
to meet persons who seem to think that
all that is necessary in order to become
a microscopic is to buy Il microscope
and place objects under it. Truth lies
between these extremes. No progress
can be made without steady applica-
ton and persistent labor. but any per-
son of fair average ability and a mod
crate degree of perseverance can soon
learn to follow the beaten track, at
least. if not to branch out into oligi
nal research"
.'What are some of the most curious
facts you know about microscopic"
''Well, probably the most wonderful
was the writing of Webb and Peters.
They wrote the Lords PRAYER and the
commandments with diamond in let
tiers so fine that if the whole bible were
written, and in same proportion, it
might be written twelve times on a
square inch. This writing have my
self seen, and believe one such slide
is in the army museum at Washington
at the present time. have the Lords
prayer written in letters so small that
if the whole bible were written in the
same proportion it could be put on the
half of postal-card. I have also the
Declaration of Independence, the frame
work OF which is composed of portraits
of the signers reduced so small by mi
cro-photography that to the naked eye
it is no larger than a pinhead. One Of
the most celebrated uses to which the
microscope has been put was during
the Franco-Prussia war. 1t was easy
enough to 60 out of Paris. you re.
member, by balloons, but very difficult
to get back. Well. those who went out
and wished to communicate with their
friends in the city took carrier,
pigeons with them. In London
and elsewhere these people
had their letters printed on a large
sheet. This was photographed and re,
duced to one inch square. Then the
reduced size, on collodium film, was
rolled and placed in p crows quilt and
the quill was tied to the mid-feather
of the pigeons tail. Then the bird
was sent flying home to Paris. The
film was unrolled and the letters de-
cipherod under microscope. Several
hundred different messages would be
sent on one of these pieces, which were
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